Customer Winback Campaign Automation - Timing Change Question

[fitbody]

What happens if i edit a workflow with a wait step?
i.e. - Currently an automation is set so that "Order Fulfilled -> Entire order has been fulfilled -> Wait for 45 days -> Customer didn't make a new order since wait step -> Send Marketing Email"
All orders currently cued are within the past 41 days, so the 45 day mark has not hit yet.
I want to change it to 30 days...what will happen to all of the orders that are in there now?
Will it send to all 30 days or older?
Will it reset and not send anything?

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@fitbody 

If you edit a Shopify workflow with a wait step and change the duration of the wait, it will affect any orders that are currently in the automation and have not yet reached the wait step. For example, if you change the wait duration from 45 days to 30 days, any orders that are currently within the first 30 days of the automation will continue to the next step, while any orders that are currently between 30 and 45 days into the automation will be reset and will need to go through the entire automation again. This means that if you want to make changes to a wait step, it's best to do so before any orders have reached that point in the automation.

[fitbody]

So...like this?

[SocialAutoPost]

Yes, here is the more descriptive answer:

When you set up an automation in Shopify, you can specify a wait time that determines how long the workflow will pause before moving to the next step. For example, in the scenario you described, the automation is set to wait for 45 days after an order is fulfilled before sending a marketing email to the customer. If you change this wait time to 30 days, it will affect any orders that are currently within the first 30 days of the workflow.

The exact behavior of the automation will depend on how the workflow is set up, but here are two possible scenarios:

1. If the automation is set up to send the marketing email to any orders that are 30 days or older after the wait step, then changing the wait time to 30 days will cause the email to be sent to all orders that are currently within the first 30 days of the workflow. This means that the email will be sent earlier than originally planned for these orders.

2. If the automation is set up to only send the marketing email after the wait step has passed for all orders in the queue, then changing the wait time to 30 days will cause the workflow to reset for all orders that are currently within the first 30 days of the workflow. This means that the email will not be sent until the new wait time of 30 days has passed for all orders in the queue.

In either case, it's important to carefully consider the potential effects of changing the wait time in the automation, and to test the updated workflow thoroughly before implementing it in a live environment. This will help ensure that the automation is working as intended and that it will have the desired effect on your customer winback campaign.

[fitbody]

Shopify support seems to answer a little differently...

So aside from researching, I also tested the customer winback template on my test store, albeit on different days that what you have.

And I can confirm that the new workflow will trigger as soon as you change the wait time.

This means that orders that are between 31 days to 45 days old will be sent out marketing emails once you edit the workflow and the wait time will not reset for orders that are less than 30 days old because the basis will always be the order creation date. 

[SocialAutoPost]

You should consider Shopify's answer as the final answer. I would also reach out to Shopify for more clarity and share if I get anything.

[fitbody]

Great, thanks.

[fitbody]

Unfortunately, it seems as though Shopify's information was incorrect.
After I made the change from 45 to 30 days in the wait step....looking at the action steps in the automation, it appears the 45-day wait is "attached" to each order/customer individually, so then it does not change to 30 days. It remains 45 for those it's been "applied to" but changes to 30 days for those that come through after the change.
Please advise if I have mistakenly evaluated.

[SocialAutoPost]

As per my understanding, When you changed the wait step in your automation from 45 days to 30 days, it only applied to new orders/customers that came through after the change was made.

For orders/customers that were already in the automation, the 45-day wait remained in place.

One way to change the wait time for all orders/customers in the automation, regardless of when they were added, would be to edit the automation and manually change the wait time for each step in the action. However, depending on the number of steps in the action and the number of orders/customers already in the automation, this could be a time-consuming process.

Another option would be to create a new automation with the desired wait time of 30 days, and then move all of the orders/customers from the old automation to the new one. This would ensure that all orders/customers in the new automation have the same wait time of 30 days.

Regardless of which approach you choose, it's important to carefully test the automation to ensure that it's working as intended before using it in your business.

[wasimkhann]

Hey, I received this error message "This activity has an error and required changes" in marketing activities. Customer winback is paused. I need help